...it's like TV Tropes, but LINKED DATA!
Fun with Foreign Languages
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Many comedic situations come out of foreign languages. They may come when you insult someone in a language you assume they don't understand, and they respond with a smart-ass remark in that very same language. Then comes the poor foreigners and their allegedly hilarious mangling of a second language, be it an American trying a different tongue or an immigrant misusing English. Or they speak out a word that just so happens to mean something entirely different to the locals. Hilarity may ensue when an American asks a foreigner to teach them a language, and the foreigner deliberately misleads them as to what phrases mean to prank the hapless English-speaker. They might say something means "I want to make a purchase," when it really means "God, I love sniffing airplane glue and abusing my underpaid immigrant servants." Then there's the Non-Ironic Language Echo. There are two people, who speak different native languages. One supposes aloud what the other is talking about in their own language, not knowing the other is bilingual and can understand them; the other then repeats what the first was saying in their own language as a joke. Of course, mutual speakers of a language might converse and share in-jokes, but lead their monolingual audience to think it's an entirely different (grave and important) conversation. I Love Lucy started a joke that has been re-used several times. It involves a chain of translators, each of whom speaks two languages. Lucy's in a French jail. She needs to explain herself to a Magistrate (she unintentionally passed some counterfeit bills.) The Magistrate speaks only French, Lucy only English. Ricky speaks English and Spanish, another prisoner speaks Spanish and German, a policeman speaks German and French. So the conversation is passed back and forth through three intermediaries, including Lucy's signature whine and the Magistrate's dismissive "Huh!" (Eventually it's revealed she only needs to pay a small fine.) See also Funny Foreigner, Bilingual Bonus, Tactful Translation, Language Fluency Denial, Either "World Domination", or Something About Bananas. |
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The British version of Coupling had an episode with an instance of The Rashomon that was largely about this; it features two completely different perspectives in a conversation between an Israeli girl who doesn't speak English and a Welshman who doesn't speak Hebrew. (He thinks a word that she says is her name; when we hear it from her perspective, we find out exactly what that word (shadayim) really means. - note Breasts) "They arrested him? What for? All he was doing was running around the Air Israel desk calling her name..." |
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The Non-Ironic Language Echo appears in Love Actually: when a monolingual Englishman is trying to converse with his monolingual Portuguese maid (with whom he is, needless to say, in love) they both end up saying exactly the same things. The story later goes on to partially subvert the Language of Love trope by having him take a crash-course in Portuguese before they take the relationship further, although the subtitles reveal that he still speaks it pretty poorly at the end of the film when he proposes to her. | |
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Dominic Deegan: Donovan Deegan, father of the title character, speaks Orcish — to some degree. When he received the Orc name "Kulka Sheendo Dak", he was told it meant "bringer of peace and joy". Appropriate as that would have been, he found out many years later that "bringer of peace and joy" was "Kilka Shiendo Dak". As Donovan proudly dressed in pink most of the time, they had named him "little pink man in pink". His Orcish has provided comedy on other instances as well, with such statements as "My landmass erupts with kittens." Recently, it's been revealed that Donovan has not only been providing Fun with Languages, he's been having his own fun with languages. He speaks perfectly fluent Orcish, coming out with a profound "I believe it goes, '<It is not the language of the clans but the language of nature to which one has to listen.>' Cue WTF faces from all present. |
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In the Are You Being Served? episode "German Week", the German Band arrives, and a character says something to them in German, and they respond in English. Truth in Television: in Germany and other European countries with a large proportion of people who speak English as a second language, it's common for tourists attempting to speak the local language to receive a reply in English. The guidebooks specifically warn people not to be disheartened by this and that the attempt is always appreciated. |
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The first part of episode 4 of the second season in Squid Girl is mostly in English, and features a lot of misunderstandings based on bilingual puns. There's a bit of good English there, as well as the complete opposite. | |
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In Beelzebub, when Oga, Baby Beel, Furuichi and Hilda are in America, Oga, who doesn't know how to speak English at all, introduces himself as "Fuck". He is called like that for the rest of the arc. | |
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Done in Impulse when Bart Allen "teaches" his mentor Interlac. | |
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That's also the method used in Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow. A human exploration team make First Contact with the Runa people of Rakhat, a planet circling Alpha Centauri. Their first efforts at communication are between the team's linguist and a little Runa girl. Runa are used to dealing with "foreigners" from other parts of their own world. Taking advantage of children's capacity for language learning and adaptability, Runa children are traditional interpreters. The girl addresses the linguist because he came forward first; also, he is smaller than the other team members, and she thinks he's a child, too. | |
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In The Fifth Elephant he also tries to speak Dwarfish he's learned on the street, identifying himself as "Overseer Vimes of the Look" (Captain of the Watch) and not knowing that the word he's using as "you" literally translates as something similar to "punk". | |
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The Liberator: Played for Drama in the first episode. An SS major is grilling Spigs about the "ponds" in the American rear. A terrified Spigs says that he doesn't know anything about any ponds as the the German screams "WHAT ABOUT THE PONDS?" Another soldier is pointing a pistol at Spigs's head when Spigs finally realizes that the German isn't saying "pond", he's saying the Italian "ponte", which he is confusing with the English word "bridge". | |
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In Moby-Dick, Stubb gets aboard the French vessel Rosebud and engages in a strange conversation with her captain, being the chief mate the translator. While Stubb insults the French captain, the chief mate misguides his captain to get rid of two rotten whales that are attached to the ship. This creates the mildly hilarious situation that the captain seems to be very pleased by Stubb's "advice". | |
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Scrubs loves this joke. In another episode, Dr Cox asks Elliot how to tell a German patient he has lung cancer. Elliot, being annoyed with him, teaches him to say "Your wife has huge cans." Even better, when he says it, he's miming what he intends to be lungs... | |
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Our Miss Brooks: Tends to happen in episodes where French teacher Mr. LeBlanc appears. | |
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In Hikaru no Go, a mistake in translation between Korean Go pro Ko Yeong-ha and a Japanese reporter gives the titular character cause for anger- it had seemed that Honinbo Shusaku had been insulted. When the mistake is discovered, Yeong-ha decides not to correct it so as to piss Hikaru off even more. | |
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In the 2011 film Courageous, the main character Adam has his friend Javier in the back seat of his patrol car. While Javier is still in the back seat, a call goes out for a warrant of a drug trafficker. As Adam arrests the trafficker, he tells Javier to act like a crazed man to freak out the trafficker. The trafficker is disturbed by the behavior of Javier, as Adam has told the trafficker they have the leader of the gang "The Snake Kings" in the patrol car and he is not to make eye contact if he values his life. When Javier starts speaking Spanish in a sinister tone, the trafficker starts freaking out. The translation captions shows us Javier's only listing his lunch plans. | |
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One of the later storylines of Cyborg 009 has Joe travel to Germany to help 004 with mysterious goings-on. On the airplane, he manages to thank the stewardess in German, prompting her to tell him (also in German) that he speaks the language quite well. After she leaves, a mildly embarrassed Joe admits he had no idea what she just said. (Note that this is a bit of Later-Installment Weirdness on the part of the series. The rest of the manga has the cyborgs able to understand anyone, regardless of what language they were presumably speaking, and Gilmore's diagram of Joe's cybernetic upgrades included a computer chip that acted as a universal translator.) | |
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In the Rocko's Modern Life episode "I See London, I See France", Rocko is on the plane, dreaming about romancing a French wallaby girl whom he actually meets later. He leans in as she's saying something undoubtedly romantic, and Heffer's voice is heard as he practices phrases from his phrase book: "Je besoin de papier toilette!" | |
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Discworld: Jingo: A Klatchian general insults an Ankh-Morpork general by slipping into his native tongue, and passing it off as an old Klatchian saying. (This has double comedic impact, because the usual apology for rough language in Discworld books is "Pardon my Klatchian", a la the real idiom "Pardon my French".) In the same book, a couple of Klatchians who have identified the bumbling Sergeant Colon as a spy tell him the army is meeting at En al Sams la Laisa, a huge location that Colon is practically on top of. When he reports this to Lord Vetinari, the Patrician tells him it's "The Place Where the Sun Shineth Not". In A Hat Full of Sky, the "ancient dwarfish runes" on a magic wand translate as "Oh, what a wally is waving this". This could probably also work for hand-gestures. At one point in Monstrous Regiment, Commander Vimes gives the eponymous group a thumbs up, which prompts this confused exchange: "I think in Ankh-Morpork that means 'Jolly good.'" "I heard in Klatchian, it means, 'I hope your donkey explodes.'" "Why would he say 'Jolly good'?" "Or hate our donkey so much?"note IRL, the 'thumbs up' gesture can mean a lot of things in different cultures. In some Middle Eastern countries (including Iraq) it means 'Up yours!' which puts in context the crowds of thumb-waving Iraqis who greeted US troops... Later in the same book, in a deliberate nod to JFK, Vimes attempts to say "I am a citizen of Borogravia" and instead comes out with "I am a cherry pancake." Being Vimes, it doesn't bother him too much. In The Fifth Elephant he also tries to speak Dwarfish he's learned on the street, identifying himself as "Overseer Vimes of the Look" (Captain of the Watch) and not knowing that the word he's using as "you" literally translates as something similar to "punk". In Interesting Times, it's mentioned that "Argh!" translates in certain Discworld languages as "Your wife is a big hippo", "Hello, thinks Mr. Purple Cat", or "I would like to eat your foot" depending on inflection. This becomes a running gag, where various characters' screams are literally translated into these phrases; at one point, Rincewind screams "Argh!" and another character responds "What's that about a hippo?" It also translates to "Quick! More boiling oil!" in yet another language. Considering one of the characters is an insane emperor, this has unfortunate consequences. In the Discworld Roleplaying Game there is a skill called Shouting At Foreigners, which roughly works like this. |
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Martial Law: Amy show up for martial arts lessons from Sammo in a new gi with Chinese writing down the right breast. After Sammo pin her down in one move, Amy mentions she ask for lessons in Martial Arts, not "kick my butt". Sammo responds that then you should never wear something you can't read. Amy looks down at her gi and asks, "Why? What does it mean?" Sammo's response? "Ching ti wo pi gu (Chinese), 'Please, kick my butt." The characters are accurate too. For her next lesson, Amy shows up wearing an all black gi, sans writing. | |
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In Corky Romano, there's a particular amusing scene where Corky has to be the translator between a Thai and Vietnamese gangster. The problem? Corky doesn't actually speak either language, and just ends up repeating what ever was said to him back to the two others. It both confuses and eventually insults the gangsters, causing hilarity and violence to ensue. He also occasionally yells out the names of Asian dishes, such as moo goo gai pan (being the only Asian words that come to his mind). |
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I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue had a round in which humorous translations were given of foreign phrases that had entered the English language: these included "avant-garde" (next-to-last coach on a train [before/ahead of the guard]) and "film noir" (my photos haven't come out [black (i.e. undeveloped) film]). | |
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Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory attempts to learn Mandarin Chinese, but has just a bit of trouble with the tones. He then attempts to speak Chinese to various native speakers, with predictable results, as translated on screen in subtitles: "Long live concrete?" "Your monkey sleeps inside me." "Where is the mucus?" "Oxen are in my bed! Many, many oxen!" In another episode, Sheldon describes his team for "The Physics Bowl", consisting of the Third Floor Janitor, the Lunch Room Lady and a guy who (due to Sheldon's poor skills on Spanish) is either her son or her butcher. |
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Euro Trip: The group of teenagers is trying to get a lift to Berlin: Fun with Subtitles: The driver never actually says that he sexually assaulted a horse. It's only in the subtitles. What he actually says is, "I was arrested near Berlin. I'm never going to Berlin again." |
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Atomic Robo, despite technically having the capacity to learn anything by uploading it directly into his brain, chooses not to. This results in his Japanese being absolutely horrible, sometimes called by fans "Reverse Engrish." | |
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In the comedy Water (1985), American oil executives land on the island of Cascara and come across the local radical liberation front — all two of them (one of whom is Billy Connolly, whose character only communicates through bad singing). | |
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Bulldog Drummond has a scene where Hugh Drummond attempts, with a "microscopic" knowledge of French, to explain to a customs official how he came to be in France. It goes on for a whole page before his sidekick, who does speak French, stops laughing long enough to straighten things out. | |
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Jingo: A Klatchian general insults an Ankh-Morpork general by slipping into his native tongue, and passing it off as an old Klatchian saying. (This has double comedic impact, because the usual apology for rough language in Discworld books is "Pardon my Klatchian", a la the real idiom "Pardon my French".) | |
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Spies Like Us. Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd are dropped into Pakistan only to be captured by bandits. | |
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Fun with Foreign Languages | |
| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_5a3533fe | comment |
In My Name Is Earl, the "chain-of-translators" version is used. And includes sign language, for extra fun, as the lawyer is deaf. | |
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Fun with Foreign Languages | |
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Rush Hour 2: Detective Carter tries to speak to a crowd in Chinese, but Inspector Lee tells Carter: He also fouls up other situations, for example he thought he asked two attractive Chinese ladies for coffee. He actually invited them to get naked and sacrifice a goat. They were not amused. In the first movie, Carter spends his first few scenes with Lee believing he can't speak English. Lee lets him believe this until it's convenient for him to reveal he's fluent. |
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The Talented Mr. Ripley: | |
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Fun with Foreign Languages / int_5db05cee | |
| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_60f02ddb | type |
Fun with Foreign Languages | |
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In American Dad!, Steve's friend Toshi only speaks (subtitled) Japanese. People assume several times that he has said something completely unrelated to what he has actually said, often the exact opposite. | |
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Fun with Foreign Languages / int_60f02ddb | |
| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_62a7de21 | type |
Fun with Foreign Languages | |
| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_62a7de21 | comment |
Azumanga Daioh has some of this kind of fun. In one episode, Kagura encounters an an American tourist and tries to express her intention to help carry his luggage, but draws a blank on her English lessons: "Help! Help me!" Afterwards, the tourist thanks her in Engrish ("That herped me a rot, thanks."), and the only response Kagura can think of is to give him the thumbs-up and shout "Yay!" | |
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Fun with Foreign Languages / int_62a7de21 | |
| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_638624c8 | type |
Fun with Foreign Languages | |
| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_638624c8 | comment |
In Slayers Premium most of the characters slowly lose the ability to speak anything other than "Octopese". Two key phrases are "I love you" and "flat-chested", both said by Gourry to Lina. Needless to say, Hilarity Ensues. | |
| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_638624c8 | featureApplicability |
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Fun with Foreign Languages / int_638624c8 | |
| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_638d8d9c | type |
Fun with Foreign Languages | |
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The Canadian film Bon Cop, Bad Cop frequently plays with both official languages. The Quebecois cop gratuitously makes fun of the Ontarian cop in French... until he finds out his counterpart is fluently bilingual. "You speak French?" "Pas vraiment, j'ai un petit gadget installé dans mon cerveau et je vois des sous-titres sous les personnes quand elles parlent." (Not really, I have a small gadget installed in my brain and I see subtitles under people when they speak.) | |
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Fun with Foreign Languages | |
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The same joke was used in Chapter 16 of Pokémon × Nimja: Play the Game, except that the word "breed" is left untranslated for obvious reasons, Hades is simply incredulous at Crowe's hobby of horse-breeding. Also, he mishears "ja, paarden" as yapardon and thinks that Yapardon are strange animals/Pokemon species. Obviously, he doesn't get Dutch at all. | |
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| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_72de92f6 | type |
Fun with Foreign Languages | |
| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_72de92f6 | comment |
In The Rundown, Travis exploits this to convince the natives to kick Beck's ass, as Beck doesn't speak Portuguese, telling Beck to keep a "fierce gaze" and maintain eye-contact, (knowing that to the natives, this is a major sign of disrespect) going while he tries to convince the natives to let them go. The natives also don't speak English, so when Beck starts suspecting that Travis "really sucks at Portuguese," Travis has to "translate" what Beck said. | |
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| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_7337d81c | type |
Fun with Foreign Languages | |
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In Maverick, the title character and his fellow travellers encounter a band of Indians. The chief just wants to catch up with Maverick and pay him back some money he owes him, but Maverick directs him in making the encounter look hostile in order to put one over on Miss Annabelle Bransford. ("Point all around and talk angry. Lots of words. Fire your gun in the air...") | |
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Fun with Foreign Languages / int_7337d81c | |
| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_740815bb | type |
Fun with Foreign Languages | |
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In Interesting Times, it's mentioned that "Argh!" translates in certain Discworld languages as "Your wife is a big hippo", "Hello, thinks Mr. Purple Cat", or "I would like to eat your foot" depending on inflection. This becomes a running gag, where various characters' screams are literally translated into these phrases; at one point, Rincewind screams "Argh!" and another character responds "What's that about a hippo?" | |
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Fun with Foreign Languages / int_740815bb | |
| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_769da46e | type |
Fun with Foreign Languages | |
| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_769da46e | comment |
This could probably also work for hand-gestures. At one point in Monstrous Regiment, Commander Vimes gives the eponymous group a thumbs up, which prompts this confused exchange: "I think in Ankh-Morpork that means 'Jolly good.'" "I heard in Klatchian, it means, 'I hope your donkey explodes.'" "Why would he say 'Jolly good'?" "Or hate our donkey so much?"note IRL, the 'thumbs up' gesture can mean a lot of things in different cultures. In some Middle Eastern countries (including Iraq) it means 'Up yours!' which puts in context the crowds of thumb-waving Iraqis who greeted US troops... | |
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Fun with Foreign Languages / int_769da46e | |
| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_7884ec15 | type |
Fun with Foreign Languages | |
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Seinfeld: Elaine thinks the Korean women are making fun of her, which of course they are. She brings George's father, who secretly speaks Korean, to eavesdrop on their chatter, but his short temper leads him to blow his cover quickly. In "The Lip Reader" episode, George enlists Jerry's current deaf girlfriend to find out why his latest girlfriend dumped him by asking her to read her lips during her conversations at a party. Kramer, who knows ASL, is also present. Either the woman misreads the other woman's lips as her saying "sleep together" when she actually said "sweep together" (she was offering to help a friend clean up after a party), or Kramer misinterprets her signing "sweep" as "sleep". Either way, George goes ballistic, thinking that his girlfriend was cheating on him with this other guy and makes an ass out of himself when he confronts them. |
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| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_799916df | type |
Fun with Foreign Languages | |
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Into The Veesha-verse: "My Treasure" has Vee mix up "Kannst du die Tür bitte schließen" note Can you please close the door? with "Kannst du die Tür bitte scheißen". note Can you please shit the door? This essentially turns a normal sentence into a profanity-laden poop joke. | |
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Fun with Foreign Languages / int_799916df | |
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Fun with Foreign Languages | |
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In George of the Jungle, Lyle and the native guides do not get along too well, especially after Lyle accidentally injures one of them. Lyle mutters some suspicions on the intentions of the guides, who, unbeknownst to him, speak English as well as Swahili. | |
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Fun with Foreign Languages / int_7ad0ade | |
| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_88992e76 | type |
Fun with Foreign Languages | |
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The remake of To Be or Not to Be in which Bronsky and his wife perform Sweet Georgia Brown entirely in Polish, and continue to argue afterward, in Polish, before the announcer wearily declares, "In the interest of clarity, and sanity, the rest of the film will be in English!" Both characters sigh, relieved, and continue to argue in English. | |
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| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_89515d5a | type |
Fun with Foreign Languages | |
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In Wise Man's Grandchild, the kingdom of Earlside decides to honor Shin's great feats with the title "King of the Magicians". Unfortunately for Shin, who has a lifetime of the Japanese language in his head, the words for that title in the local language are pronounced Maou("Demon King"). | |
| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_89515d5a | featureApplicability |
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| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_8cb3a247 | type |
Fun with Foreign Languages | |
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Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: At the Quidditch World Cup, the Bulgarian prime minister drives Cornelius Fudge crazy by making constant demands in Bulgarian, which Fudge does not speak. It is not until after the match that he reveals he speaks English very well; he just thought it was funny to watch Fudge flounder about trying to figure out what he wanted. | |
| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_8cb3a247 | featureApplicability |
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| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_8d814070 | type |
Fun with Foreign Languages | |
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At the end of one episode of M*A*S*H it turns out that Hawkeye has taught the Koreans that the correct response to Frank Burns calling him a "twerp" is: "You tell it to him, Ferretface!" See also: "Frank Burns eats worms." |
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Fun with Foreign Languages / int_8d814070 | |
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Fun with Foreign Languages | |
| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_8d817ccb | comment |
Late in the first season of Lost, Michael picks up just enough Korean to allow for some gesture-heavy conversations with Jin, where Jin says something in Korean and Michael responds in English. Sawyer then starts referring to them as "Han and Chewie." | |
| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_8d817ccb | featureApplicability |
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Fun with Foreign Languages / int_8d817ccb | |
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Fun with Foreign Languages | |
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This shows up in A Series of Unfortunate Events. Based on guesswork about word frequency, Snicket translates "cul-de-sac" as "At the end of a dark hallway, the Baudelaire orphans found an assortment of mysterious circumstances." | |
| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_8dd0bbcc | featureApplicability |
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Fun with Foreign Languages | |
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Meteor (1979). A Russian scientist is meeting with a U.S. General Ripper to begin politically sensitive negotiations to aim nuclear missiles at the oncoming Death from Above. Each side has their "English voice" and "Russian voice", both speaking at the same time to avoid accusations of duplicity. Eventually Sean Connery gets tired of the babble and just has them speaking English with the pretty female Russian translating — at the end the general turns to his Russian voice and demands, "Is that what I said?" The translator just says, "Yes." | |
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Fun with Foreign Languages / int_8e969da6 | |
| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_9068877a | type |
Fun with Foreign Languages | |
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In Red vs. Blue, Lopez the robot only speaks bad Spanish, which nobody understands. He uses this to his advantage to insult and snark at everyone (which backfires when he meets Locus, who understands Spanish, leading to an Oh, Crap! from Lopez), and makes O'Malley insult himself in Spanish when trying to give commands to his robot army. | |
| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_9068877a | featureApplicability |
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Fun with Foreign Languages / int_9068877a | |
| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_99102298 | type |
Fun with Foreign Languages | |
| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_99102298 | comment |
The Two Ronnies flipped this around with the sketch "Swedish for Beginners" (AKA "F U N E X?") - in which the "Swedish" is just English (roughly) rendered with spoken letters. | |
| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_99102298 | featureApplicability |
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Fun with Foreign Languages / int_99102298 | |
| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_9ba32ced | type |
Fun with Foreign Languages | |
| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_9ba32ced | comment |
In Faux Pas, which focuses on an assortment of animals (foxes, rabbits, cats, a chicken...) and gives a few faceless humans only incidental roles, nearly all of the various animals are quite capable of understanding human speech. Because Status Quo Is God, though, Failure Is the Only Option when the animals attempt to make themselves understood by whichever humans presently have control over their lives. Thus, the chicken, Myrtle, is able to read and write...but her "handwriting" is so poor that the humans can't quite make sense of it (even though, whenever readers are shown a page of her writing, Myrtle's "chicken-scratch" is perfectly legible). More to the point: when a new character is introduced — a cockatiel uninspiredly named Cocky — who "can speak human, for real"...it turns out that Cocky is fluent in "French human", and comically inept with English. So, when the fox who urgently needs a translator asks Cocky to tell the humans this or that, Cocky ends up with gems like: "M'sieur! This girl fox photo of your wildest dreaming to begin? This fox Randy, she is not he!" (Which actually makes close enough sense, in context, but the human doesn't get it.) And don't forget this priceless strip.◊ |
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| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_9ba32ced | featureApplicability |
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Fun with Foreign Languages / int_9ba32ced | |
| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_9e5f03e3 | type |
Fun with Foreign Languages | |
| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_9e5f03e3 | comment |
Ally McBeal: Lucy Liu, arguing a case, purports to be relating a Chinese proverb. The subtitles reveal that she is, in fact, simply describing her plan to win sympathy from the jury by using her tone to convey that she's saying something deep and meaningful while actually saying nothing of consequence, because "None of you speak Chinese." | |
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Fun with Foreign Languages / int_9e5f03e3 | |
| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_a2174d23 | type |
Fun with Foreign Languages | |
| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_a2174d23 | comment |
'Allo 'Allo! is a bit of a strange one. While, from the viewers' perspective, there aren't any foreign languages in play, its WW2-era France setting means that there are characters who, logically speaking, would be speaking French, German and English. In order to keep the jokes intact, the actors simply use accents to denote which language that character would be speaking. The British airmen on the run from the Germans (who don't speak French at all) speak in the stereotypical RP/upper-class English accents known the world over, while the French and German characters speak in respective accents. Better yet, the frequently-appearing Officer Crabtree is in fact British but, unlike the escaped airmen, he does speak French. However, he speaks it badly, which is reflected in him mispronouncing words for comedic effect, such as his greeting of "Good moaning." | |
| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_a2174d23 | featureApplicability |
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Fun with Foreign Languages / int_a2174d23 | |
| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_a32b6a64 | type |
Fun with Foreign Languages | |
| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_a32b6a64 | comment |
The chain-of-translators joke is subverted in The West Wing, where, after a couple of back-and-forth exchanges, the foreign dignitary at the end of the line rolls his eyes and asks "Why don't we just speak in English?" | |
| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_a32b6a64 | featureApplicability |
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Fun with Foreign Languages | |
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Happened twice with the same prankster and victim in My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Ian at one point told Toula's whole family that he had three testicles. | |
| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_a59e5413 | featureApplicability |
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Fun with Foreign Languages / int_a59e5413 | |
| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_ad43200e | type |
Fun with Foreign Languages | |
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Richard Curtis had a Fun With Sign Language gag in Four Weddings and a Funeral. For example, when Serena is first signing to Charles' deaf brother David by spelling her words a letter at a time, she signs "I'm probably naking tols of nistakes", and when David takes the tactful route and indicates her signing is "perfect", then invites her to dance, she signs, "That would be... mice." | |
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Fun with Foreign Languages / int_ad43200e | |
| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_aecac520 | type |
Fun with Foreign Languages | |
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The Man with Two Brains: In Germany, Michael is pulled over for speeding by a police officer, who demands in German to see his driving license - the subtitles appear on the screen. When he learns that Michael speaks English, he reveals that he can also speak English and orders his colleague in the car to turn the subtitles off ("That's better - we have more room down here, yah?"). | |
| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_aecac520 | featureApplicability |
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| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_b0793848 | type |
Fun with Foreign Languages | |
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In The Boondock Saints, the two "Irishmen" flip into perfect Russian to stick it to a Russian mobster. | |
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| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_b0c5a5f9 | type |
Fun with Foreign Languages | |
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In the Ridley Scott thriller Black Rain Nick (Michael Douglas) asks "Is there a single Nip in this place who speaks fucking English?" in front of a Japanese cop who proceeds to introduce his police boss before finishing "— and I do speaking fucking English". Fortunately Nick's American partner, Charlie, is a lot wiser. This proves a Running Gag, as when Nick's bitter "I like to be kissed before I'm fucked!" is translated by Charlie simply as "Foreplay." |
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| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_b0c5a5f9 | featureApplicability |
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| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_b17c57f5 | type |
Fun with Foreign Languages | |
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One of the funnier gags on The Jamie Kennedy Experiment involved Jamie posing as a clueless maitre d' in a Japanese restaurant while the employees insulted him in Japanese. Jamie couldn't understand a word, but the customer knew exactly what they were saying. Hilarity Ensued. | |
| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_b17c57f5 | featureApplicability |
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Fun with Foreign Languages / int_b17c57f5 | |
| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_b38eba39 | type |
Fun with Foreign Languages | |
| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_b38eba39 | comment |
Kukushka (Cuckoo) was based around this trope: none of the three main characters (a Finn, a Sami [Laplander] and a Russian) speak each other's language, and end up talking at each other and misinterpreting each other's meanings. This includes names; the uncommonly gregarious Finn asks the taciturn Russian for his name, and when the Russian spits a curse at the Finn, the Finn starts innocently calling him by that. | |
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Fun with Foreign Languages / int_b38eba39 | |
| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_ba52f6ce | type |
Fun with Foreign Languages | |
| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_ba52f6ce | comment |
In Nadja, after Nadja is injured but gets away, Edgar tries to figure out her location using Twin Telepathy, which causes him to revert to his native Romanian as he describes what he's picking up; Van Helsing provides a running translation for the others. Part of it goes like this: | |
| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_ba52f6ce | featureApplicability |
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Fun with Foreign Languages / int_ba52f6ce | |
| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_bb7d6a95 | type |
Fun with Foreign Languages | |
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Played with in Duckman, usually by Cornfed. "Either you're babbling, or you just told me in Cherokee 'my scrotum is many colored'." | |
| Fun with Foreign Languages / int_bb7d6a95 | featureApplicability |
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In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy two aliens conducting peace negotiations accidentally hear a comment in English by Arthur Dent, which unfortunately in their language sounds like a hideous insult. When they stop warring with each other long enough to realize where the insult came from, they decide to attack Earth but due to a miscalculation of scale their war fleet is swallowed by a small dog. Likewise in Hitchhiker the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation Complaints Department (its only profitable division) used to have a sign in mile-high illuminated letters bearing their motto "Share and Enjoy", but the letters sank into the planet's crust and the upper halves now appear to read, in the local language, "Go Stick Your Head in a Pig". They're no longer illuminated, except at times of special celebrations. Belgium! |
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In Braveheart, while Wallace is meeting with the English princess (a native Frenchwoman), she speaks with her counsellors in front of Wallace... but does it in Latin, assuming that the Scotsman cannot speak the language. They advise her that Wallace is a barbarian and a liar... and Wallace snaps back angrily that he NEVER lies. In Latin. And then, just to make sure they got his point, he switches to speaking in French. | |
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In A Hat Full of Sky, the "ancient dwarfish runes" on a magic wand translate as "Oh, what a wally is waving this". | |
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Both Monty Python ("My nipples explode with delight.") and Saturday Night Live ("I want to feed your fingertips to the wolverines.") built memorable sketches around this trope. | |
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In the Discworld Roleplaying Game there is a skill called Shouting At Foreigners, which roughly works like this. | |
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In one Darkover novel it's mentioned that a particular Darkovan phrase, which translates literally as "friend and brother", is forbidden to diplomats from the Terran Empire. The everyday inflection would be acceptable, but it's too easy to say it with the inflection that makes it mean "brother" in the familial sense — or the one that makes it mean "same-sex lover". | |
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In The Air Up There, Jimmy's fellow bus passengers take advantage of the fact that he doesn't speak Swahili. | |
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Johnny English: Johnny just spits out what seems to be random Japanese-sounding gibberish, but it turns out he actually said "May all your daughters be born with three bottoms." | |
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Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Sky Captain asks Kaji, his contact in Nepal, about his Tibetan language skills. Glancing at Polly Perkins, Kaji replies in Tibetan: "When cold, nipples hard." | |
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In the original anime Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds, they figured the best way to get an announcer that would breathlessly broadcast the outcome of children's card games was to get a guy who didn't know Japanese and get him to phonetically shout his lines at the top of his lungs. . What's more, they got a bodybuilder and tae kwon do fighter, Bernard Ackah, to do it. | |
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The opening sequence of The Cutting Edge has Doug waking in a panic, realizing that he overslept and is now late for a championship hockey game. He's completely confused as to how this happened, as he set his alarm for nine. His one-night stand is equally confused as to why he's so upset, seemingly echoing him, "Yes, you say nine alarm?" She's actually saying "Nein alarm", and "nein" is German for "no". Whereas he thought he was saying he wanted the alarm set for nine, she thought he was telling her he didn't want it and presumably turned it off. | |
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On Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a vampire minion attempting to translate Latin for Spike comes up with "debase... the beef... canoe". Spike's response, as can be expected, is "why does that strike me as not right?" It turned out it wasn't really Latin, but a cipher meant to look like it to the casual observer. Also, Latin doesn't have a word for 'canoe'. A 7th season episode has Giles offering a Chinese potential slayer ice cream - she's speaking Cantonese, subtitles reading "I'm lactose intolerant! This man is trying to kill me!" |
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Drop the Dead Donkey: Jerkass reporter Damien is taught an "ancient greeting" by Japanese journalists which actually means "Go have sex with a hedgehog". After their initial shock, the Japanese executives he greets find it a lot more funny than he does. Henry repeats this situation with a Russian dignitary, introducing himself as a pregnant cabbage. On another occasion, Damien pretends that a tearful witness in Nagorno-Karabakh is talking about how his family were shot by drunken soldiers. Unfortunately, the cleaning lady is from that region and reveals he's actually thanking Damien for giving him money so he can visit Elvis Presley's home in Memphis. |
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Family Guy toyed with this by having a Spanish character only speaking enough English to respond to Brian's first two sentences. In the European Spanish translation they used English instead of Spanish (not too fitting since the migrant worker seemed Latino or so, but oh well), changing the explanation to "no, I speak English but I'm dubbed". |
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In Confessions of a Shopaholic, main character Rebecca Bloomwood spices up her resume by claiming, falsely, that she's fluent in Finnish. After she gets the job, her skills are put to test in a cocktail party with an actual Finnish person. Not ready to admit the truth, Rebecca solves the situation by slapping the man in front of everybody and claiming that men like him are the reason she left Finland. What the man was actually saying is not really that abusive: "Hi! So nice to meet another Finn in here! Ever since I've been here in Americ—" | |
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In the Sherlock Holmes story "The Greek Interpreter", the titular interpreter is brought to translate for a Greek man who is being held prisoner. They manage to communicate by sneaking in extra words after the words the interpreter is asked to translate, which is how the interpreter learns the man's name and some details of his situation. | |
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In the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Macrocosm", Captain Janeway's habit of putting her hands on her hips turns out to be the 'worst insult imaginable' in the Tak Tak language, causing her and Neelix to narrowly escape execution. Shortly afterward she vows never to put her hands on her hips again. A few seconds later, she unconsciously does it again. Likewise Chakotay talks about his first away mission, when he failed to realize that males and females used different body language symbols and ended up proposing to the alien ambassador. "It was a while before I was allowed on any more away missions." | |
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Who's the Boss?, "Tony the Nanny": Tony Danza theorizes that Italian-speaking uncle Vito Scotti thinks that he's to blame for Scotti's daughter standing up to him regarding her fiancé, and he's right (according to Scotti's daughter's interpretation). | |
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In Eyeshield 21, there are two brothers on the NASA Aliens football team that have kanji tattoos. The older brother has the kanji for "Big" and "Helpful", while the younger, smaller brother has the kanji for "Little" and "Helpful". What they don't know is that when put together, the kanji combine to form the words "Poop" and "Pee", respectively. | |
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During the ARG within Cloverfield movie's viral marketing campaing, a guy nicknamed Kosmopol - who was able to reveal many clues - stated in his blog: "Apropos, sorry for my miserable English: just know, I'm just little humble Russian, living in Germany and translating this manga from Japanese into English.". | |
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Frasier When Niles suspects that his wife is cheating on him with her German fencing instructor (it turns out that she isn't), Niles confronts him. Frasier doesn't speak German, but does know Spanish. However the Hispanic maid speaks no English but knows German. She worked for a German family that turned up in Guatemala... just after the war. In another episode, Roz asks Frasier to break up with her French boyfriend, who can't speak English. It turns out, he didn't want to stay with her anyway, and so we see a subtitled conversation where they discuss where to get good beefsteak instead, while Roz thinks they're talking about the break up. In yet another episode, Frasier has to learn how to give a speech in Hebrew, and he asks Noel to translate the speech for him, in return for a favor that Noel asks. When Frasier fails to carry out the favor, Noel still translates the speech... into Klingon. |
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There are a few jokes in Babylon 5 about Ivanova's ineptitude in speaking the Minbari language. Also one serious moment, when Marcus is only brave enough to call Ivanova beautiful in Minbari; when she asks for a translation, he gives what is probably a technically-correct (given Minbari's flowery prose) translation which weakens the meaning. Later on, after Ivanova has learned the language, she thanks him — her Photographic Memory let her remember, and then translate, the phrase properly. Another time, Ivanova exclaims "Ah, hell!" while on the bridge of the White Star. The Minbari gunner fires the forward guns at nothing. Lorien quietly tells her, "'Ahell' means 'continuous fire' in Minbari." |
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In La Vita è Bella (Life Is Beautiful), Roberto Benigni's character, Guido, translates the Nazi officer's brutal instructions into Italian for his fellow prisoners, among whom is Guido's young son. To spare his kid's innocence, the version he offers in Italian is not exactly a literal translation. There's even a double payoff from this seemingly random speech: not only does the son retain his innocence, but he "wins" the tank! |
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Subverted in The Sum of All Fears, where Jack Ryan addresses the Russian president in flawless Russian, and ends his message of goodwill by indicating that, since the Russian President earned a degree in English, and speaks perfect English, there's no reason for Jack to speak Russian. | |
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Dexter's Laboratory, "Got Your Goat": When Dexter realizes the chupacabra is really one of his escaped experiments, he rushes to pick up "Charlie", with Dee Dee tagging along to act as an interpreter. Once they arrive in Central America, they run into some surly locals who accuse them of being poachers. Dee Dee, whose grasp of Spanish is really rather lacking, thinks they're asking them if they're thirsty, and in trying to tell them "yes we are", says "I enjoy hamburgers and trousers, but I really like green balloons!" Also, the episode in which Dexter, while trying to learn French, listens to a tape while sleeping, which gets stuck on the phrase "omelet du fromage", or cheese omelet. Oddly enough, Dexter ends up bringing about world peace, winning the Nobel prize, etc., merely by saying this phrase at people. Made even more hilarious when you know that "Omelet du fromage" is actually wrong. (The correct way to translate cheese omelet would be "Omelette AU fromage"). |
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